I have utilized a great deal of different e-mail list systems over the years. In the last couple of years, I’ve been a substantial advocate of digital sovereignty and having your very own platform. For that reason (and the amazing features), I have actually been utilizing Beehiiv Sitemap.
So, it is certainly a strange move for me to choose to utilize BeeHiiv. Besides, it is an organized application and I am paying regular monthly for it.
Why did I do this?
In this BeeHiiv testimonial, I want to go over why I made the button to BeeHiiv for my e-newsletters. I want to address the concern of digital sovereignty while using the system and I ‘d additionally such as to deal with why I picked to use it over Substack.
Let’s dive in …
BeeHiiv: Built For E-newsletters
In Concern # 435 of my newsletter called My Hobby + A Large Shift In Method, I spoke about just how and why I determined to turn my recreational vehicle blog right into largely a newsletter. I determined that was the business version I intended to seek with that said building.
Yet, to intentionally pursue it as an e-newsletter, I wanted a platform that was purpose-built for that. I was using FluentCRM for the email checklist for Happily recreational vehicle, yet FluentCRM is not an e-newsletter system. It is constructed to be a CRM and marketing automation tool and, frankly, utilizing it for e-newsletters is a little bit of a waste. Much more on that particular in a little bit.
As I stated in that issue of the e-newsletter …
Basically, BeeHiiv is a system with tools constructed into it particular to my purpose. Things such as:
- Ability to release (to the blog) and send the email all at once without having it be 2 separate actions.
- Built in newsletter referral program. FluentCRM does not have that and I would certainly have needed a third-party tool like Sparkloop.
- Integrated capacity to do cross-promotions with various other e-newsletters on the BeeHiiv system.
- ” Magic Links”, which are essentially one-click registration web links. Great for promo in other newsletters. FluentCRM has Smart Links, though, so there are methods to do that.
- Capability to do paid “boosts” on the BeeHiiv network to advertise your newsletter.
- Integrated ad network, if I select to monetize with advertisements in the e-newsletter. And I may.
- Built-in ability to run a paid newsletter upgrade and generally run a costs newsletter. And BeeHiiv does not take a cut.
Primarily, BeeHiiv is purpose-built for e-newsletter publishers with features focused on growth. The system was essentially constructed by the individuals that accumulated the technology for Morning Mixture. They know what they’re doing.
That is the factor below. BeeHiiv is developed from scratch for the purpose of running an e-newsletter. FluentCRM has a various purpose.
And I finished off with this:.
I might without a doubt be relocating The Edge over to BeeHiiv as well. At the very least, I’m highly considering it.
Well, I didn’t consider it for long. As a matter of fact, I simply went all out. And in fact, The side was re-branded over to The Morning WP, triggered as it’s very own home to ensure that I can grow it a lot more deliberately as well.
The objective is that each newsletter has the capacity to be branded as it’s very own media entity and expanded individually. Gladly RV was young, so simple to transition. Yet, The Morning WP (formerly The Side) was buried in a sea of things here at the Blog Marketing Academy. By separating it off, I can do what I can to grow it on it’s own. It will obviously always be very closely connected with the Blog site Marketing Academy, however doesn’t need to belong of it.
I switched to BeeHiiv since it was constructed for this function. FluentCRM was not.
Newsletters Versus Just A Regular Email List
There’s a distinction between an e-newsletter platform and just an e-mail checklist.
You can host your email list everywhere you desire and there are a number of them around, from Aweber, ActiveCampaign, Drip, ConvertKit … over to self-hosted choices like GroundHogg and FluentCRM.
What’s the difference?
The key difference is that, with a newsletter system, the act of posting means that it is mosting likely to your web site and to your email customers concurrently.
With both BeeHiiv and Substack, you have an internet site. You are releasing to that web site. But, you are additionally sending off to all customers at the same time. The web site and it’s customers are done in one. This makes management of the system much less complex.
With most email systems, any type of newsletter you established is done as an e-mail campaign. It is developed completely separately from your web site. So, for example, you might publish a write-up to WordPress however after that you would certainly need to separately develop and send out an e-mail to your list to send it to clients. These are then two different collections of archives and two separate actions due to the fact that article and your e-mails are not naturally linked.
The closest point that turns WordPress right into a true e-newsletter system is E-newsletter Glue.
It is a suitable name since it virtually “adhesives” your newsletter to your WordPress posts and allows them to be the exact same thing. Absolutely, something like Newsletter Glue would be a solid alternative if I wanted to remain to self-host whatever. However, you ‘d shed the development tools that feature a platform like BeeHiiv.
Posting an e-newsletter inherently includes a various collection of requirements than a typical email list.
You don’t normally need much marketing automation. You do not normally need autoresponder sequences, event tracking, and all the bells and whistles of a marketing automation system.
What you DO requirement, however, is one seamless posting experience and development devices to aid you develop your subscriber base that are specific to e-newsletters.
BeeHiiv vs Substack
When I announced to my customers that I was going to switch over the newsletter over to BeeHiiv, I had many people ask me why I was selecting it over Substack.
To be clear, even besides the truth that I selected to opt for BeeHiiv, that does not imply I think Substack sucks. Actually, since Substack has actually been around much longer, it is more mature and has even more features.
Despite the fact that BeeHiiv is more youthful, there are a pair things that at first obtained my attention:.
- BeeHiiv is particularly customized to newsletter publishers. In fact, it is literally developed by the same folks who developed the innovation behind Early morning Mixture. On the other hand, SubStack targets writers. In the real world, does not matter. However, the noticeable positioning of BeeHiiv toward newsletter growth called me out over the even more generic positioning of being a “designer”. Growth is what I’m interested in below.
- That branding and distinction likewise means that BeeHiiv has some rather huge brands and huge magazines using it. Whereas SubStack is intended more at solo developers. Again, it just informs me the client avatar distinction between the two business.
Sending our my newsletter via FluentCRM really did not exactly suck. The only reason I would contemplate drinking things up is if I assumed I might expand the checklist faster. And BeeHiiv spoke specifically to that goal.
Because of the targeting, I really don’t check out BeeHiiv and Substack as direct competitors. I assume BeeHiiv is targeting a different type of consumer. In fact, if anything, I see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being a lot more direct rivals.
But, let’s dive much deeper than just the positioning here.
Points That Make BeeHiiv Better Than Substack
In general, BeeHiiv feels like it was constructed by people that recognizing e-mail marketing. On the other hand, SubStack seems a lot more tailored towards developers.
For example, BeeHiiv provides personalized areas on subscribers. Now, it isn’t as developed as something like FluentCRM. Yet, it has it. Substack does not.
BeeHiiv uses Automations. In fact, it is a visual automation builder that works a lot like what we have within FluentCRM.
To be clear, the automation capability is still early-phase. It is still quite minimal in triggers and the only action is the capability to send out an e-mail. Nevertheless, enhancements are coming. Soon sufficient, automations will certainly have brand-new triggers in addition to brand-new activities, such as customizing custom fields, sending webhooks, etc. I have actually currently seen improvements to their automations just because I started using the platform. For instance:
- Capability to activate automations based upon which particular embed kind they was available in on.
- Capability to immediately do re-engagement (and handle individuals based on opens and non-opens).
- Capability to do fundamental conditional reasoning branches.
Substack does not have automations similar to this. Likely, it never ever will. Substack just can not do this since the target market of Substack simply wouldn’t think to approach this like an email marketing expert.
When it pertains to composing your newsletters, the composing user interface of BeeHiiv is just a lot more tailored toward e-newsletters. In fact, it in fact has similarities to the WordPress block builder in exactly how it functions. I find it to be more user-friendly, personally.
Substack’s creating interface behaves and tidy, however it would be extra equal to the traditional editor for WordPress. Toolbar on top.
This distinction is more than just form. For instance, with BeeHiiv you can insert a “Section” and afterwards put anything you desire in it. After that, you can place Exposure options on that particular area to show it just to paid subscribers, hide it from e-mail, hide from customers, show only to clients, and so on. Substack supplies nothing like this.
And when/if the moment comes that I begin a premium subscription version, BeeHiiv doesn’t take any profits. Actually, you literally attach as much as your own Stripe account and it charges directly to it. With Substack, they will certainly take 10% of your revenue. Depending on the amount of subscribers you obtain, that 10% can be a fair bit more money than the month-to-month expense of BeeHiiv.
Lastly, BeeHiiv has an API. This might appear unpopular, however what it means is that there are integrations with BeeHiiv. You can in fact make BeeHiiv work with the outdoors making use of devices like Zapier or Make.com. This is HUGE. Substack actually has … nothing. No integrations in all.
In general, I simply felt like BeeHiiv was more developed towards actual email marketing. It was constructed by individuals that “get it”. Even the opt-in types and the landing page develops appear far better built for conversions. Development is the name of the game with BeeHiiv.
Although there are still features I want to see BeeHiiv add, I such as the instructions it is going more than Substack.
Points That Make Substack Better Than BeeHiiv
As I have stated, Substack positions itself toward “designers” more than e-mail marketing experts and newsletter owners. For that reason, you see some things tailored extra towards individuals that simply assume in regards to content creation.
For instance, Substack sustains podcasts. BeeHiiv does not.
Additionally, while BeeHiiv does support multiple magazines, they are treated fairly separately. Whereas Substack does have the capability to cross-post to several publications at the same time. This isn’t something I need, however … awesome for individuals who could need it.
Substack additionally has more social performance built-in. For example, it has a conversation function to host talks with clients. It likewise has a “Notes” function which works sort of like a social networks newsfeed where you can share things from various other “Stacks” you’re reading. Intriguing. Overall, Substack is set up to be more like a social network which sustains long-form content.
In general, Substack is additionally extra … minimal. You either take care of that or don’t. Personally, I don’t. Nevertheless, if the goal is simplicity of user interface and, frankly, features … Substack works rather well.
But, I’ll be clear right here …
When it comes to actual marketing, I do not believe there’s much doubt that BeeHiiv is much better fit. I searched for more points that make Substack far better than BeeHiiv, yet honestly … I have a tough time discovering them.
BeeHiiv Vs ConvertKit
While BeeHiiv and Substack are typically through to be the closest competitors, I actually see BeeHiiv and ConvertKit being the closer competitors. Both are pursuing the exact same target market and have comparable capabilities.
ConvertKit is also positioned at makers (like Substack), but it is far more highly dealing with people who do it for company. ConvertKit has wonderful aesthetic automation building, it’s own commerce system, and a lot more. ConvertKit is a really good platform.
I’m not mosting likely to birthed you with a complete feature-by-feature malfunction here. ConvertKit is popular currently. But, below’s how I really feel BeeHiiv and ConvertKit contrast …
Things ConvertKit Is Better At …
Already, ConvertKit has much more versatility when it pertains to it’s automations. I will certainly likewise claim that I discover ConvertKit’s automation builder to be a little bit more intuitive than that of BeeHiiv.
ConvertKit sustains labeling. This is simply a fundamental function of e-mail checklists that enables segmentation in a much more versatile way than BeeHiiv presently does. I anticipate BeeHiiv to support identifying at some point soon, frankly. It feels like an oversight that it is missing Beehiiv Sitemap.
ConvertKit does currently provide the ability to market points via their very own system. BeeHiiv does not. If that is necessary to you, it may be a big deal for you. For me, nonetheless, I would always select a much more direct option anyway. For me, I like to use my very own system powered by WooCommerce.
ConvertKit has been about much longer and therefore has way much more integration alternatives. Lots of online tools and WordPress plugins incorporate with ConvertKit. ConvertKit even has their very own WordPress plugin that is rather effective. For instance, their plugin currently even sustains member-gated web content in addition to auto-embed of your e-newsletter archives right into your website. Fundamentally, this a lot more closely puts ConvertKit right into straight competition by having you be able to publish to your website and your e-mail checklist at the same time.
BeeHiiv is seriously doing not have in these kinds of third-party integrations right now. It’ll arrive. However, we’re not there yet with it.
ConvertKit is even hectic tackling the development tools of BeeHiiv. For example, BeeHiiv has the referral program and the Recommendation Engine where you can not just incentivize individuals to share your e-newsletter with advantages, but you can also pay per lead within the internal advertisement network of BeeHiiv to expand your checklist. These are truly outstanding features of BeeHiiv. But …
Did you know ConvertKit obtained Sparkloop? Sparkloop is just one of the most well known viral promo systems for e-newsletters … and ConvertKit bought it. You can see the composing on the wall of what this implies for the platform moving forward.
Points BeeHiiv Is Better At … Beehiiv Sitemap
BeeHiiv is much earlier in it’s item cycle than ConvertKit. Part of that implies less features and less integrations, which is natural for this phase of the cycle. However, it also implies that they are swiftly establishing.
In the short time that I have actually been a customer of BeeHiiv, I have actually observed virtually weekly release of brand-new features into the platform. And these aren’t puny little features … but huge features that are rather essential. Their rate of development now has actually been impressive.
I also significantly value just how receptive they are. Actually, among their product news concerning some design enhancements to the website design features really had a tiny problem with the content size. I merely responded to that e-mail to tell them. I rapidly got a reply straight from the chief executive officer:.
That very same day, the concern was fixed.
Couple of days later on, I provided another suggestion …
Sure enough, in a little bit over a week of that exchange, the capacity to set off automations based on the embed form utilized was included in the system.
That kind of responsiveness and straight involvement of the group is something I actually value.
An additional major factor of distinction here is the rate. Both systems offer free plans, nonetheless the BeeHiiv free plan uses a lot more ability and more customers (2,500 vs 1,000) than ConvertKit.
Once you most likely to paid plans, the pricing of BeeHiiv is additionally much more positive. ConvertKit seems cheaper initially glimpse since their pricing web page reveals lower numbers, nevertheless the subscriber limitations are much lower and your price rapidly increases as your listing grows.
With BeeHiiv, your very first level paid plan begins at $42/mo (paid annually), however you can have up to 10,000 clients. That exact same size listing is going to run you $100/month with ConvertKit.
If you update to the “Scale” plan with BeeHiiv (their ideal plan and the one I personally make use of), you can grow your list as much as 100,000. A list of that size would run you $566/month with ConvertKit. If you desire their referral network, too, that places you at the $733/month plan. That’s if you pay annually, too. With BeeHiiv, you can obtain all that for just $84/month if you pay every year.
BeeHiiv remains in a totally various organization when it pertains to pricing (in an excellent way).
Will BeeHiiv at some point raise prices? They may as time takes place. However, I’m thinking individuals like myself that are currently in will certainly be locked-in. We’ll see how things proceed.
Things I Would Certainly Like BeeHiiv To Include
One of the important things you most definitely require to remember is that BeeHiiv is fairly young. They do seem to advance instead promptly and make new item news rather frequently, however there are some fundamental features I really want they had that I require to simply await.
One is that they require to have a setup on membership kinds where I can choose an automation to run right at the kind degree. That would be amazing for a lot of factors. Already, registration types look OK, yet there’s really little setups for them to aid in division.
It would certainly behave to have marking at the customer degree. This would certainly be powerful.
I believe webhooks should become part of automations to make built-in automations much easier and decrease reliance on outdoors tools like Zapier.
There are additionally some small management user interface changes that would certainly come in handy. As an example:
- Ability to mass edit/remove clients.
- Capacity to bulk edit messages (for example, to tag a bunch of them at the same time).
- Having a couple of standard fields as standard on subscribers (like the name).
- Some more personalization options for the website (such as even more adaptable shade choices, heading control, and so on).
So, yeah … there are some drawbacks. Points I wish they make with it in the near future. BeeHiiv is pretty good, but it isn’t ideal and certainly not almost as established as something like FluentCRM or any other real CRM item.
It most likely never will be, either. As I said, the function is different so it would not much a lot of sense for BeeHiiv to end up being a complete marketing automation platform. I think you never ever recognize, though.
Final Thoughts On This BeeHiiv Testimonial
I like BeeHiiv fairly a great deal. Sufficient where I determined to switch my very own newsletters over to the platform despite my personal choice for digital sovereignty and owning my own system.
Simply put, for the newsletter publishing model especially, I saw sufficient worth in their system to require the change.
Bear in mind, I do not use BeeHiiv as my special e-mail listing. I make use of BeeHiiv of what it is proficient at, however I intentionally have points establish so that I also maintain my checklist “in home” inside of FluentCRM.
If you make use of BeeHiiv, I suggest you do the exact same. It is just an excellent insurance plan, for one. But, having a full-featured marketing automation system for your checklist will be of high usage (FluentCRM is a full marketing automation system and BeeHiiv is not and likely never will be).
So, the concern is … should YOU utilize BeeHiiv?
In my point of view, if you are using Substack today, I ‘d certainly consider changing to BeeHiiv. It will just be extra business-friendly. It is targeting various capabilities and various demands. Plus, BeeHiiv even has import tools for Substack, so the switch should be pretty straightforward.
If you get on ConvertKit currently, I ‘d possibly stay unless you have a big email list and are for that reason being wooled with their high regular monthly bill. You will certainly not (yet) have every feature of ConvertKit with BeeHiiv, yet they are repeating rapidly. There’s additionally a pretty good chance you’re not even making use of several of those fancier features of ConvertKit and you do not also require them. Because of that, BeeHiiv could easily be a far better and extra economical fit.
Finally, if you plan to be very willful concerning growing a newsletter, I believe BeeHiiv is THE platform to consider and maintain and eye on for you.
If you make use of BeeHiiv with eyes wide open about what it is made to be, it is one of the very best video games in the area now. This is the platform to see.
BeeHiiv offers a 14-day trial on their paid plans. It is worth checking out on your own. And if you wind up not sticking with the paid plan, you’ll locate the free account to be quite feature abundant.